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		<header>
			<h1>A remote desktop</h1>
			<p>Day 00948: <time>Tuesday, 2017 October 10</time></p>
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<img src="/img/CC_BY-SA_4.0/y.st./weblog/2017/10/10.jpg" alt="A bed of cacti bearing fruit" class="framed-centred-image" width="800" height="480"/>
<section id="general">
	<h2>General news</h2>
	<p>
		I dropped off a present for Vanessa, as it&apos;s her birthday today, but she was at school so I missed her.
		That&apos;s fine though, I didn&apos;t have time to stay and chat anyway.
		Next, I stopped at the credit union to deposit my pay cheque and pick up my tuition cheque, then headed to Bi-Mart.
		Normally, the Bi-Mart lucky number prizes are nothing special.
		They&apos;re frequently food items, many of which I can&apos;t even eat due to bad ingredients.
		This time, I won a soup mug though, so that was cool.
		I touched base at home to prepare an envelope, then headed out again, this time, to the post office.
		Now I just have to wait for my tuition cheque to make it through the postal system.
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</section>
<section id="university">
	<h2>University life</h2>
	<p>
		A fellow student and I have been conversing outside of class a bit lately.
		At the beginning of the week, I mentioned to them the issue I was having with this week&apos;s Windows-based assignment.
		Probably because of time zone differences and/or the fact that I mentioned it right as we were switching weeks, they thought I was referring to last week&apos;s assignment, and they asked today how it went and if the professor had responded in a timely manner.
		After learning that the problematic assignment was for <strong>*this*</strong> week and that the professor <strong>*still*</strong> hadn&apos;t responded, they offered me use of a virtual machine that I think was hosted on their own machine.
	</p>
	<p>
		I had a backup plan in place for if the professor still hadn&apos;t written back, though I&apos;ve found people don&apos;t seem to take problems to be as serious as they are if they know I have a workaround.
		In this sort of situation, people don&apos;t understand that the problem is the fact that we were required to use Windows-based software after not having been given any warning at all.
		The problem is that we&apos;re being required to use Windows (or <strong>*any*</strong> system that takes time and/or money to set up, which is <strong>*any*</strong> particular system) without warning.
		Not all of us are on Windows, and we can&apos;t be expected to be.
		Furthermore, the professor hasn&apos;t responded after over five days, leaving those of us without the resources needed to fill this surprise requirement with nowhere to turn.
		Again, something&apos;s majorly wrong there, and it&apos;s not something that can be fixed by the fact that I found the ridiculously-required software will run on the public machines at the local library.
		By omitting the fact I have a plan in these situations, I find people at least seem to get that there is in fact a big problem, though I don&apos;t think they get quite how bad it is.
		In any case, I didn&apos;t mention my plan.
	</p>
	<p>
		Getting connected to their system remotely cost me a little over four hours of time.
		Quite frankly, neither of us knew what I was supposed to be doing on my end.
		They got their remote-access system running right away, but how does one connect a Linux-based machine to a Windows-based machine using the Microsoft proprietary protocols?
		Eventually I figured out that the solution was <a href="apt:rdesktop"><code>rdesktop</code></a>.
		I should&apos;ve used the time between attempts to work on grading or responding to discussion posts, but I did not.
		That was short-sighted of me, and will either cost me sleep tonight or cause stress tomorrow before work.
		The lost four hours were worth it though.
		The main things I realised before even starting this endeavour were that it&apos;d put non-Windows window frames around my screenshots and that I could add into my essay that I had to get help.
		While I&apos;d already made it clear that the Windows system I used at the library was a public machine and not my own in the part of my essay I&apos;d written already, the non-Windows window frame around the Windows environment subtly drives home the fact that Windows is not the main system being used by the author.
		And I do so hate being thought of as a Windows user.
		If you&apos;re a Windows user yourself, you don&apos;t even need to take that as an insult.
		I also don&apos;t like being thought of as cisgendered, because I&apos;m not.
		I still don&apos;t have a problem with cisgendered people; as a freak of nature, I&apos;m perfectly fine with the fact that most of the world is of a more normal type then I am.
		Next, that ability to write into the essay that I needed help because I &quot;don&apos;t have access to Windows&quot; will hopefully make clear to some of the students grading it that Windows isn&apos;t the only thing out there.
		It&apos;ll by no means convert them, but it&apos;ll hopefully help them understand that gearing things toward only Windows users only serves to exclude people.
		By luck, I had a fallback plan, but not all non-Windows-users will!
		Lastly, I assumed that having an entire Windows desktop boxed up in a window would clear up some ugliness in my screensots.
		By default, some versions of Windows, such as whatever version the library uses, uses translucent window frames.
		It&apos;s ugly on the desktop, and I&apos;m not sure why anyone would want that feature.
		Many people do like it though, even in the Linux world, and some desktop environment support it.
		Offhand, I think <abbr title="K Desktop Environment">KDE</abbr> has it enabled by default, though I can&apos;t swear to that.
		In any case, while it&apos;s ugly on the desktop, it&apos;s even uglier in single-window screenshots.
		You see the hint of things in the background, but without enough context to make most of it out.
		I think whoever decided translucent window frames are a good idea either didn&apos;t think about or didn&apos;t care about screenshots.
		By capturing the entire desktop, but using a smaller &quot;monitor&quot; size, I figured this ugliness would be made less ugly.
		I got a pleasant surprise though when I found the remote system didn&apos;t have translucent frames at all.
		Does Windows not send translucent frames remotely?
		Does that version of Windows not have translucent frames at all?
		I don&apos;t know, and to be honest, I don&apos;t care.
		The shots just look a lot better, and that makes me a little happier.
		I love Windows showing up as ugly without my having caused it in any way, but the ugly frames were a tad distracting from the essay content.
		They were that bad.
	</p>
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